History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 111

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1424

USA > Illinois > Mercer County > History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc > Part 111
USA > Illinois > Henderson County > History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc > Part 111

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JOHN HITE was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, February 15, 1831. His parents were Pennsylvanians. Our subject removed to Mercer county, Illinois, in 1860, where he remained until 1879, when he removed to Henderson county, where he now resides. Ile has always followed farming as his legitimate business. Mr. Hite served as a soldier in the 20th Ill. Inf., the last year of the late civil war. IIe was married November 1, 1853, to Margaret J., daughter of James and Catharine Grew. They have had eight children born unto them, seven of whom are living. Mr. Hite is in good circumstances.

LEMUEL T. CLARK. Keithsburg, farmer, was born in Mahaska county, Iowa, July 14, 1853. His parents were Solomon and Huldah (Templeton) Clark. When he was but two years old he came with his

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parents to Keithsburg, Mercer county, and there remained one year. The family then moved to Henderson county, from whence Mr. Lemuel Clark returned to Mercer county when he had reached the age of manhood, and settled on the farm on which he now resides. December 24, 1874, he was united in marriage with Miss Lizzie Camp- bell, daughter of John and Mary Campbell, of Henderson county. They have no children. Mr. Clark is a gentleman of education, having attended the common schools until eighteen years old, and finishing a business education at the Burlington Business College of Burlington, Iowa. For the past eight years he has been teaching school in the winter ; six years in his own district. Politically Mr. Clark is an abolition democrat. 'He is a man whose word is as good as his bond, and who is respected by all who know him. .

JOHN SWANSON was born in Sweden, June 20, 1849. He received a common school education in his native country. He came to America in 1869, and settled in Mercer county, Illinois. He worked as a farm laborer for two years. He now owns 130 acres of land, all improved. He was married March 17, 1871, to Amelia Sheff.

NELSON H. PHELPS was born in Oquawka, Henderson county, Illi- nois, February 22, 1834. His parents were natives of New York state. He received his education at Galesburg, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. In 1854 he engaged in general merchandising, which he followed until 1857, when he engaged in banking in Oquawka for two years. He then retired from business, and in 1860 went to Pike's Peak. After a stay of two years in the far west he returned to his home in Oquawka, but soon went south and served as first clerk in the paymaster's department. He was married July 4, 1855, to Julia Deni- son, daughter of Erastus and Martha Denison. They are the parents of six children, five of whom are living. Mr. Phelps has always voted with the republican party.

DAVID B. MURRAY, farmer, was born in Ohio, May 15, 1845. In 1849 his father's family removed from Ohio to Mercer county, Illinois, where they remained until 1856, when they removed to Henderson county. Our subject was married January 1, 1878, to Miss Nettie Shaffer. They have two children : George E., born March 9, 1879, and Ray B., born January 10, 1882. Mr. Murray has a good farm of 100 acres. Religiously he is a liberal.

JOHN WALTERS was born in England, February 12, 1820. He was educated in the high schools of his native country. He came to Hen- derson county, Illinois, in 1852. He has a farm of 276 acres well im- proved ; life has been a success with him. Mr. Walters was married in 1831, to Miss Frances, daughter of William and Frances Edwards.

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She died in New York, June 21, 1849. He married the second time, May 13, 1858, choosing for his companion this time Nancy Chard. They have had seven children born unto them : Thomas, Mary F., John W., George A., William, Nettie H., and Joseph, all living but one.

WILLIAM E. SMITHI was born in England, January 30, 1832. IIe was educated in the common schools. He came to Ohio from England, and from Ohio he removed to Illinois, and settled in Henderson county, in 1842. Mr. Smith was elected a justice of the peace in 1877, which position he held for one term. He is a member of the Metli- odist Episcopal church, and has been since 1843. He was married April 12, 1860.

JOHN H. RICE, farmer, was born in Henderson county, Illinois, February 14, 1844. His parents were from Kentucky. Our subject was educated in Oquawka in the common schools. He was a member of Co. C. 91st Ill. Vols. He returned home, and lived in Oqnawka for a short time. He then went on a farm, and has since followed farming. He was married December 29, 1865, to Miss Margaret J. Martin, daughter of George P. and Caroline Martin. Politically he is a republican.

GEORGE MCCURDY was born in Henderson county, Illinois, Decem- ber 15, 1856. He followed teaming from 1878 to 1880, and then removed to the farm. He is a republican in politics. His circum- stances are good.

WALNUT GROVE TOWNSHIP.

Walnut Grove township, which is generally termed township 9, range 4, comprises thirty-six sections of the choicest farming land in the county of Henderson. Though there is no eminence from which a view of the entire township may be taken, yet the physical features present everywhere a delightful landscape to the human eye. Standing on a rise of ground on the north side of the township, there is stretched ont in summer a glorious prospect of forest, field and sky; on the left hand are fields of billowy grain and waving corn, extending as far as the eye can reach until the green of the fields and the blue of the heavens meet in the distant faint horizon ; on the right hand the view is more circumscribed : the landscape here, more undulating, is dotted with green groves, with white houses, with red barns, decorated with their white trimmings. In front extends the long line of heavy forest which skirts the banks of the Ellison. In the edge of this timber is

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the Ellison church, its whiteness standing out the more clearly in the midst of the dark forest trees ; church and trees together lifting them- selves up to the open heavens, both monuments to God, the one speaking of nature's power and skill, the other telling of the piety and reverence of the soul of man. To one standing on the south side of the township and looking to the north, there is but little change in the scene, save that the green fringe marking the south bank of Ellison valley is faint and indistinct. In front and on both sides are unequaled farms running back on the long ridges and gentle slopes, the hedges. the groves, the golden fields of grain against the background of watery sky, all combining to make up a scene the silent beauty of which beggars the skill of writer's pen or painter's brush to describe.

The beautiful and fertile lands of this township are abundantly drained by various streams and brooklets. The Ellison, which enters the township on the east from Warren county, after flowing through section 24, passes on in a northwesterly direction until it reaches the north side of section 10. Here it turns and flows southwest, passing out of Walnut Grove township in section 18. The southern tier of sections is drained by a little brooklet which rises in section 27, and which, after passing through several sections, empties into Honey creek, which enters Walnut Grove township at section 32 and passes · out again in section 31. Several brooklets, taking their rise in the central portion of the township and falling into the Ellison, furnish good drainage to the central farms.

Ellison creek, which, it is said, was named for a man named Ellison who was drowned, at an early day while laboring on a mill, is the only stream or brooklet that has been dignified with a name. The banks of this beautiful stream are fringed with an abundance of tim- ber, which yearly is thought to be increasing. Almost every variety of wood common to this latitude is here found : oak, white, burr, black and other varieties ; soft maple, black walnut and butternut; hickory of several varieties ; lime, ash, ironwood, elm, crab-apple, thorn-apple, wild plum, and an abundance of hazel and dog-brush are all to be found on the banks of the Ellison. The cool shades of these groves, the refreshing water of the springs and streams, the rich and juicy grasses of the prairie, all combined in an early day to make this a paradise for the wild grazing herds.

The soil of this township that lies along the streams is of a chocolate colored loam, through which in many places the clay subsoil crops. Baek from the streams the soil becomes a rich black loam, possessed of unbounded fertility, and well adapted both for the raising of fruit and also for agriculture and stock-growing ; a number of the citizens of

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the township are engaged in the latter, and have many acres set in clover and blue-grass, which grow most luxuriantly.

There are two stone-quarries in the township: one on section 24, formerly owned by Johnson & Ray, and a second on the old Kirk- patrick place on the Ellison.

WILD ANIMALS AND GAME.

To one walking in the quiet stillness of the evening along the woods that skirt either bank of the Ellison, it seems well nigh impossible that at the time of the advent of the first settlers these woods were filled with deer, turkeys, antelope, squirrels, wolves and an occasional pan- ther. Yet such was the case. Mr. Davidson was accustomed to kill turkeys for his home use from the lots about the place. When out of meat it was the custom of all the early settlers to go to a deer path about dusk in the evening or daylight in the morning, and there wait for the coming of a deer, which, when killed, was at once dressed and dragged to the house. Even as late as 1851, at a wolf-hunt on South Prairie, 300 deer were counted in the circle, and one dog of Uncle Aleck Rankin's caught and killed no less than four. In 1857 a Mr. Brent found a panther' in a tree near his house, and even later than that a black wolf came into his neighbor's yard and carried off a large porker.

The early settlement of the township was not unattended with danger, as is shown by the murder of the man who first erected a cabin within its limits : a man named Harris, from New York. Mr. Harris was an old soldier who had fought in the war of 1812, and had come to this county to settle on a piece of land which he had drawn for his services in that war. Here he hoped to make for himself and family a home. . Having cleared a small piece of ground on section 11, a quarter of which he had drawn, he began the erection of a cabin, which was nearly completed. After a hard day's labor cutting and squaring logs for the completion of his home, his labor being no doubt lightened by the thought of the dear ones with whom he was soon to be united, he kindled a fire on the hearth and sat down to his evening meal of hominy and coffee. From this point nothing was known for many years as to what occurred up to the time his body was found. A day or two afterward, a neighbor going to see him found him dead, with face bowed over upon his plate of hominy and a bullet hole through his head. Evidently he had been shot from the rear, the murderer having placed his gun in the little window. The alarm was given at once, and the few men in the county came together and made all possible investigation as to the

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murder, but without learning anything. For a time suspicion rested on the Indians ; again on some parties who afterward removed to the west. About six months after Mr. Harris' burial, near his little cabin, some of his relatives came from New York to see if he could be found, and after disposing of his claim they again returned to New York. More than twenty years passed away and the matter passed from the minds of all. Yet not all, for the murderer never forgot it. One day some one in the township found in a Cincinnati newspaper the account of the hanging of a criminal for murder, who on the scaffold made confession of his crimes. Among other murders was the account of his killing a man named Harris in Henderson county, Illinois. The murderer said that he saw him draw a large sum of money from a bank in a town in New York, and to obtain this followed Mr. Harris through to Henderson county. He first dressed himself as an Indian and then approached the house and shot him while at his supper. Having failed to find on his person or in the cabin any of Harris' gold, save a twenty-five cent piece, which he threw on the floor, he left in disgust. To those who were acquainted with the details of the murder, the proofs of the truth of this man's story seemed conclusive, and there seems to be no doubt that after many years Mr. Harris' foul murder was partially avenged.

Many parties, it is said, have dug about Mr. Harris' grave, and one man has made experiments with instruments. in hopes to find his gold, which is supposed to be buried somewhere in the vicinity of his cabin, but all without success.

Soon after this sad affair, which it is thought occurred in 1833, the township was settled at two different points simultaneously, by Mr. Frederic Davidson and Aleck Rankin, two of Walnut Grove's best men and staunchest citizens in the early days. Mr. Davidson, with his family, then consisting of his wife Elizabeth and two children, Marion and Martha, came from Indiana to a point near Ellison, in Warren county, in November of 1833. Here he resided about one year. He then removed a mile or two down the Ellison to the edge of a long point of timber, within the limits of Henderson county, and here settled about the same time that Mr. Rankin came to Walnut Grove, in the spring of 1834. In the edge of this timber, to which was given the name of "Long Point," Mr. Davidson erected a cabin and began his pioneering life. No doubt his Scotch ancestry helped him to endure the privations to which he was subjected. Yet no ancestry can make privations less, and though it may lighten heavy loads it can never entirely remove them. The least of all his labors were performed when Mr. Davidson had erected his little log cabin.

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At the point of woods known as Walnut Grove, which has since given its name to the township, Aleck Rankin settled. Close down by the bank of Sampy Branch, beneath a majestic tree, he drove his wagon containing his wife and four children, and his brother Hugh's family, consisting of wife and four children. Here they camped all night, and next morning a site for Aleck Rankin's house was selected. Trees were felled and hewn so as to fit together and a cabin erected. While they worked at felling trees they lived on the wild game which passed by the wagon, tame and unacquainted with the sound of human speech and laughter. At night, while their wives slept in the wagon, the men slept beneath the overhanging branches of a mighty tree. The night they moved into the house a strange incident occurred, which must have deepened these men's faith in an overruling providence. When Mr. Rankin went out from the cabin the following morning, a great limb had fallen from the tree on exactly the spot where they had lain so many nights. Had they been there, no doubt both would have been killed. Here, also, a cabin was erected for Mr. Hugh Rankin, who did not, however, live here long, but moved farther north and built a shop on the Ellison above the bridge at a point about north of the present church building. Here he followed his avocation as a wheelwright, making chairs, tables, ete., and here for many years he had a sugar camp. In the fall of the same year two other brothers, Joseph and Jame's Rankin, eame on and settled, the former south of Sampy Branch, his cabin standing where the house of Alexander Rankin, Jr., now stands. James erected a cabin about eighty rods west of his brother Aleck. Joseph at this time had a large family, while James had four children.

In the fall of this year, 1835, a fifth brother, William Rankin, with his family, came on, and settled on the Ellison at a point northeast of the present United Presbyterian church. Here, assisted by his brothers Hugh and Joseph, he erected a saw-mill, the power for which was fur- nished by the Ellison, for which a race was dug. He afterward added to this a little pair of burrs, in which he ground corn for the neighbors. All of these brothers were influential and enterprising men, and though most of them are dead, yet in the influences left behind them they still live.

About this time Judge Steele came to Walnut Grove and entered the land where George Dixon now resides. The following spring he settled on this land. Four brothers named Kendall also settled near Mr. Steele, but they remained only a short time, afterward going into Olena township. In the southeastern part of the township Mr. W. P. Thompson erected a cabin on the west bank of the Ellison, and here

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he now (1882) resides. In the early days of his settlement he went thirty miles to Spoon river to mill, and was then sometimes compelled to stay several nights for his grist, while his dressed pork brought him but one dollar a hundred.

In the fall of 1836 Hugh Lee and wife and Thomas Allison (then unmarried) came. In the fall of 1837 came John Pogue, and two years after, with his wife, he settled where they now reside. Soon after this the Mathers family, possessed of sterling worth, came on and began their pioneer life near where Mr. Joseph Mathers now resides.

HOSPITALITY.

The hospitality of those early days knew no bounds. The log cabin of the pioneer was the point to which the weary travelers directed their steps. When the great white wagon drew up before the cabin, its occupants were eagerly welcomed. The women, though never seen before, were kissed and carried in to the fire; the children became acquainted as if by instinct ; the barns were never too full to hold the new comer's horses ; the house was never too small to accommodate their persons and goods. Did anyone chance by that way, he was warmly welcomed. So it happened that often, in a little cabin, with its single room, slept beside the fireplace full fifteen persons. Did any one have an ox team or wagon, or chain, when the Rankins first came into Walnut Grove. it was common property. Did anyone have any- thing not possessed by his neighbors, it was completely at the disposal and for the enjoyment of all.

ROADS.

Every man then made his own road. The travelers' way no fence nor farm nor barn lot obstructed ; but, obtaining his bearings, he went directly to the point desired. Generally the Indian pathis were fol- lowed, which led along the banks of streams, midst shady groves, with camping grounds here and there near some bubbling spring. Often a full half day's ride would be made and no one met, save an Indian, solitary and alone. But oftener no sound disturbed the sacred stillness of the virgin air, nor fell upon the woodman's ear, save the distant echo of his ax, the chattering of the birds, or the murmuring of the stream hard by.

Sometimes the solitary traveler would chance upon an Indian burying-ground, to one side of his beaten track. Upon the little new- made mounds were bowls of nuts, or milk, or newly gathered forest fruits, to cheer the weary traveler on his silent journey to the happy hunting grounds. Upon the warrior's grave lay his accustomed bow

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and proven arrows. Beside the chieftain rose up the mound of his faithful pony, killed that he might ride in the new life even as he had in the old and lost one. Sometimes, not often, beside a new made mound, sat the squaw, faithful in death as she had been in life, sway- ing to and fro, and beating time upon her breasts. Yet such sights as this did not often greet the travelers' eye, as he wandered up or down the banks of Ellison. Oftener he met an Indian, attended by his squaw, his faithful pack of dogs, his many-sized papooses. Tlie warrior led the way, the squaw came next with papooses before or behind, or perchance swung on either side, while behind was a pony, trained to obedient service, with great packs hanging from either side. Beneath some overhanging tree, close by the stream perchance, they stopped, when four small trees whose tops would intertwine were bent together, a covering was thrown over all and fixed fast. Then while her liege lord lay upon the ground and smoked, the dusky squaw hastened with water and wood to prepare the evening's meal, while her papooses played upon the grass. Amid such sights and scenes the early pioneer lived and labored to prepare his home.

EARLY SCHOOLS.

Coming from eastern homes, where they had enjoyed some educa- tional advantages, the early settlers soon felt the need of the same privileges for their children. The first session of school ever held in this township was taught by Mr. John Sampy. Mr. Sampy was a little wiry man, with keen eyes, and wore an expression on his face that frowned down all would-be disturbers of the schoolroom's quiet. It is said that in a corner always stood several rods that were powerful arguments in favor of obedience, and these were by many teachers used without seruple. Indeed, tradition tells of a threat on the part of an irate parent to thrash the schoolmaster, whose name has been justly forgotten, if he ever again beat his boy until the blood ran down his back. In the minds of these early teachers the accumulation of knowledge seems to have been necessarily connected with the administration of blows.

The building in which the first school was held was the one first erected by Aleck Rankin for a dwelling house. It was a log cabin, built by the laying together of logs fitted at the ends. Its windows, some maintain, were of paper, well greased so as to admit the light, while others think that the oiled paper only took the place of the win- dow, a small square one, which had been broken out. The floor was of puncheons, or slabs of linn-wood, hewn smooth on the one side. The room was seated with slabs, into which holes had been bored and

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pins inserted. The backs to the seats were supplied by the children, who bronght them to school in the morning and invariably took them home again at night. Around the room were slabs elevated above the other seats, called desks, upon which the scholars learned to write. Some of the children, more fortunate than others, possessed spelling books, from which they learned their letters. Others had letters cut from some paper, which were pasted on a board held before them. After completing the spelling book the pupil began to read the New Testament, which he read in until he graduated from the school, the time of his gradnation depending less upon the pupil's advancement than upon his ability to help support the family. The majority of the boys went bareheaded and barefooted, and girls and boys alike often wore home-made clothes spun from flax. Upon the dismissal of the school every boy, when he reached the door, turned and bowed to the teacher, while each girl was expected to make a courtesy. Children's papers, children's columns, were things unknown, and but little atten- tion was paid to the child mind in the early days of the history of Walnut Grove township.

The influence of these early surroundings in developing from these children strong men and women is beyond all measurement. The fact that the children of these parents have almost withont exception made themselves both fortunes and names is proof enough of the value of the early institutions. From this little school-house in the wood have come men that have filled with honor to their county almost every station in life; have come men who have filled the legislative chair, the pulpit, the desk of the teacher, besides furnishing men for profes- sional and laboring life to nearly every western state. Every candid mind that compares the results in making good men of the early days with the results of our later hot-bed civilization must confess one of two things: either the early institutions of our fathers surpassed ours, or else they worked upon better material.

EARLY PHYSICIANS.

Sickness, it is said, was less frequent then than now. Log cabins, through whose chinks and fire-place came plenty of fresh air; fresh game, simple food, and a quiet life, all combined to produce health. Over all the township but one doctor traveled, by name McMillan ; his memory is still fragrant in the minds of many. Day and night he traveled over his circuit of three counties, sleeping on his horse. Once a man with a gash in his forehead was found on the Ellison, slowly bleeding to death. A man going to a neighbor's house where Dr. McMillan was treating a patient, met him sound asleep upon his

Samuel Galbraith

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horse. When he was ready to sew up the gash on the man's head, he was unable and told them to let him sleep an hour ; so upon the grass he slept, and awoke with steady nerve to do his work. Many like incidents are told of this good man, whose name is now secure. Methods of treatment then were peculiar. A fever patient was allowed no water; and if perchance, while the doctor slept, the patient awoke and slyly drank a whole pitcher of ice water, thereby saving his life, the doctor would exclaim : "What a constitution that man has got!" But with the passage of years passed away many of the old ideas, much to the relief of physicians and patients.

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History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 111

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co. Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1424